Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP -- Union Carbide Corp. and federal environmental officials are studying where to locate a new well in a United Water Toms River well field to help prevent a plume of pollution from affecting other wells there.
Last month, the federal Environmental Protection Agency directed Union Carbide to install an "interceptor well," in the well field, which is located off Dugan Lane near the Garden State Parkway.
A plume of ground water contamination from the nearby Reich Farm Superfund site has seeped into the well field.
Craig A. Wilger, Carbide's project manager for the Reich Farm site, said Carbide consultant Jon Sykes is trying to determine the best placement for an interceptor well by using a computer model of ground water in the area.
"We think it has some merit," Wilger said of the EPA's direction to install an interceptor well.
Wilger said such a well would be drilled to the same shallow depth as United's other wells that tap the shallow Cohansey aquifer.
Most of the Cohansey wells in the parkway field are drilled to a depth of 150 to 300 feet.
A possible location for the new well would be between wells 26 and 28, Wilger said.
The well would draw the plume of contaminated water away from other wells.
The EPA's order to install an interceptor well at the parkway field came just a few months after state and federal officials announced that the Reich Farm plume had briefly seeped into into Well 29 when that well was pumped at high rates to meet summer demands for water.
Officials also have said that Well 26 has not been drawing as much water from the aquifer as models predicted. United Water officials have said it is common for a well to pump less water over time because it begins to pull in sand and other sediment from the aquifer, which restricts the water flow.
Trace amounts of trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen, were found in the well, along with small amounts of styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical compound related to plastics production. No trimer has been detected in Well 29 since Sept. 10, and trichloroethylene has not appeared in the well since Sept. 17.
In late October, Gov. Whitman ordered a carbon filtration system placed on Well 29, and nearby Well 22. State officials have set a June 9 deadline for installation of the carbon filtration system on the two wells, although it is not yet clear who will pay the estimated $1.5 million cost of the work.
Wilger said state Department of Environmental Protection officials have not contacted Carbide about paying for installation of the filtration system.
EPA has instructed Carbide to pay for installation of the interceptor well. Wilger said he does not yet have figures on the estimated cost of the new well, but may have them by next week, in time for the monthly meeting Monday of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: January 05, 1999
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